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"It is wonderful to drive fast," said Camus gaily, "when one is not driving oneself." At 2 that afternoon, the car sped through the town of Villeneuve-la-Guyard, about 80 miles southeast of Paris. A few minutes later it lurched out of control, hurtled against one tree and smashed into another. When the police arrived, they found Gallimard fatally injured, his wife and daughter unconscious. In the back of the car, whose speedometer had stuck at 150 km. (94 m.p.h.), was the crushed and lifeless body of Albert Camus.
At week's end, under the cypress trees of the Lourmarin cemetery, the mayor of the village spoke a few words, and in prayerless silence the coffin of Albert Camus was lowered.